As much as we would love for all of our blogs to be successful both in the content they carry and the traffic they generate, not all are able to meet our goals all of the time. Despite a strong start, Brand New Classroom has shown a steady decline in the quality of student work we have received — no offense to those whose work we’ve shown lately, it’s just the way it goes. Additionally, the amount of time it takes to prepare each post is not worth the amount of traffic they receive. We love the idea of a forum where students’ identity work can be critiqued but we don’t have the time to make it that place. Maybe someone out there can take the premise we’ve set up and run with it on their own. Many thanks to all the students who have subjected themselves to the open and honest (and sometimes brutal) critiques of our readers during the short 16 months we published.

We are thrilled to launch the inaugural Brand New Awards. All the details are there: Who are the judges? What and who is eligible? How much does it cost? What are the categories? And, oh yeah, how can one win US$3,000 to give to a charity of choice? If we’ve missed anything or if you would like to discuss fire away in the comments. Follow developments and announcements via Twitter @bnawards.

(If you are an impulsive award enter-er and submit within the next hour or two, please bear with us as we finalize some back-end tweaks).

As an option to stay in tune with Brand New Classroom, we are starting a good, old fashioned mailing list. At the moment there is no plan for regular mailings, just infrequent mailings with important announcements. By subscribing through this post you will receive Brand New Classroom mailings as well as general UnderConsideration mailings (only big announcements like starting a new book or launching a new initiative). Please visit Brand New, FPO and Quispologies to subscribe to those specific mailing lists. This is completely optional and if you are somehow offended by mailing lists, just don’t add your name and e-mail. Thanks.

We are running a little low on submissions and work to publish. After a couple of months you’ve seen the kind of work that works on Brand New Classroom and you’ve seen that, for the most part, commenters have been generous and classy in their feedback. So send in that work!

In exchange for all the blood, sweat and tears that are constantly shed for the sole purpose of your online enjoyment by the hard-working team at UnderConsideration we would like to ask for an additional five minutes of your time to complete our reader survey. Plain and simple, this information helps us convince our trustful advertisers to spend part of their marketing budget advertising on our blogs which allows to spend as much time as possible working on them. The survey is answered anonymously so no names or e-mails are passed on to us and we appreciate your forwardness in completing as much information as possible. Thank you, tons. Link to survey.

Welcome to Brand New Classroom, a proud descendant of everybody’s favorite, Brand New. I encourage you to read the About page to get the full description but if you just want the quick version: We will be publishing identity work from students around the world who tackle redesigns of well-known brands as a class assignment. The focus will be as much on the final result as the process to get there. All of our readers are encouraged to provide constructive feedback, whether you are a student yourself or a seasoned professional. If you are eager to submit your work for consideration right away please read our selection criteria at the submission page.